SideQuesting

It’s been a long road.  The smashing year 2009 came and went, and now here we are: choosing our favorites of the year.  After a long month of arguing, fist fights, high fives, and liquor, we’ve come to the conclusion that we all have some pretty varied tastes here at the ‘Quest.  We’ve managed to play great games across the majority of consoles, hand-helds, mobile, and PC, and have created our list of our Top 5 of the year.

A little inside baseball: For this list we’ve used the 5-4-3-2-1 grading scale for our picks.  We realize that there are other methods, but in the end we utilized the simplest one.  We also realize that this list may not have satisfied everyone on our team or even our readers.  We’ve decided to list our editors’ and authors’ individual picks at the bottom, to allow our readers to see just what got us to the final 5 and to allow everyone to know what we’ve been playing and loving all year.

With that said, let’s begin with #5!
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This past weekend I packed for my recent business trip to Japan and instinctively included my DS.  Upon boarding the plane and plugging myself into the barely-comfortable seat (yay for coach!) I whipped out my Lite with a copy of Dragon Quest V and began to repeatedly press “A” for attack.  I always choose an RPG for my longer flights, as they provide enough meat to help at least 7 of those 12 hours go by without a flinch.  The hours melted away, thanks to the prerequisite grinding and slime-herding.

The gentleman next to me had a more unique situation.  He had both a DS and a PSP and switched between several games on each.  On the DS I watched him play what appeared to be a Japanese point-n-click novel (they’re all the rage) and what appeared to be a Hotel Dusk style of detective game in which there was a constant tapping taking place.  On the PSP it was more puzzle-based endeavors.

As for me, I didn’t change the DQV cartridge out of its slot.

I noticed something similar on the train and subway.  The Japanese all play games, but not so much on portable consoles.  Most of the time they engaged in cell phone gaming (flip phones, not touch screen) and in a rare instance I saw a DS come out to play.

That got me to wondering about what everyone else plays on their plane trips, car rides, and so on.  Are you an RPG person?  Or are action/puzzle games more to your forte?  And, do you play differently depending on your trip length?

“It’s not Friday!”

We know that!  But seeing as how it’s America’s biggest holiday week, we thought we’d kick it off by offering our TRULY TERRIFIC stalkers readers some freebies!

The kind folks over at Cocky Culture have donated a few splendid BlackBerry themes for us to give out to our community this week.  Got a drab Blackberry?  Spruce it up with a sweet Revolver or Cherub theme (or whichever one else you’d like)!

How to win? Simple.

1) Leave a comment telling us what kind of phone you have.

2) Enter up to once per day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

3) Must be a US resident to enter

4) Check back each morning (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) at 10AM EST to see who won from the day before!

Good Luck!

Black Friday has come and gone… what did you buy?

SideQuesting wants to contribute to the madness by giving you a couple of games.  Inspired by the racing from store to store at odd hours of the morning (personally, we slept until noon while still in a haze from the turducken we scarfed down at the SQ office party) we’re teeing up a couple of great racing games for you: PGR3 and Forza 2!  Now, they may not be the NEWEST editions of the games, but they certainly are tons of fun… and should get you in the mood for the rest of your consumer racing these next 30 or so days.  And in the spirit of the season, we’re working this contest with our compadres over at CarDesignFetish.com, our sister site about cool automotive design.

How to win?  Simple.

1) Follow both SideQuesting and CarDesignFetish on Twitter and tweet this message:  I want to win these games from @SideQuesting and @CarDesignFetish for #FreeStuffFriday! http://bit.ly/8AQ7O2

3) Enter up to once per day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

4) Must be a US or Canadian resident to enter (sans Quebec… sorry!)

5) Check back on Sunday Nov 29, 10PM EST (when we draw the winner) at the bottom of this post to see who wins.

Good Luck!

[Update:  The winner of the games is.... @HotPocketNinja!  Congrats on winning and thanks for entering!]

All of the hullabaloo over Modern Warfare 2 has brought us a bit of swag to give to our readers. This week on #FreeStuffFriday we have a sweet Modern Warfare 2/XBox Live T-Shirt (in XL size)!  Sport this black tee to show off your love of the game, or use it as a dishrag… we don’t care because it’ll be yours!  And, don’t forget to check out our latest episode of the SideQuest, where we talk Modern Warfare 2 with Justin McElroy of Joystiq.com

How to win? Simple.

1) Leave a comment telling us your favorite reason to play Modern Warfare 2, and if you don’t have it then tell us what would entice you to pick it up

2) Enter up to once per day Friday, Saturday, Sunday

3) Must be a US resident to enter

4) Check back on Sunday Nov 22, 10PM EST (when we draw the winner) in the comments of this post to see who wins.

Good Luck!

Did you get a chance to read our Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 review?  You should, because if you did you’d know that it’s an interesting yet simple brawler, good to cleanse the palate after some Modern Warfare 2 hijinx.  Well, you’re now in luck!  Running from now until Sunday, 15th November at 10PM EST one of our message board members will win a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Playstation 3!

How to win?  Simple.

1) Join our message boards here or by clicking “Boards” on top the page.

2) Tell us your favorite Marvel super hero or villain in THIS THREAD

3) Enter up to once per day Friday, Saturday, Sunday

4) Must be a US or Canadian resident to enter (sans Quebec… sorry!)

5) Check back on Sunday Nov 15, 10PM EST (when we draw the winner) in the comments of this post to see who wins.

Good Luck!

We’ve got a double-smack of great swag today!  One winner will receive two games: Zack & Wiki (Wii) and Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2)!  Raided from a going-out-of-business GameCrazy, we’ve got a couple  used games to hand out to you!  (Don’t worry, they work but are DISC ONLY.)

How to win?  Simple.

1) Leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite place to buy used games, or

2) Follow us on Twitter and retweet this message: RT I want to win these games from @SideQuesting for #FreeStuffFriday! http://bit.ly/3eLGe2

3) Enter up to once per day Friday, Saturday, Sunday via comment or Twitter or both

4) Must be a US or Canadian resident to enter (sans Quebec… sorry!)

5) Check back on Sunday Nov 8, 10PM EST (when we draw the winner) at the bottom of this post to see who wins.

6) We’re giving away one pack of both games, but by entering on both the site and through Twitter you can double your chances!

Good Luck!

This Tuesday (27 October) on #gamechat: We’ll discuss the big games of November!  Assassin’s Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, L4D2, New Super Mario Bros… What games are you looking forward to most this month?

Join us and discuss!

#gamechat begins on Twitter at 9PM EST every Tuesday.

Want to know how to get included in #gamechat? Read here to find out!

What games are you looking forward to this season?  What gems (or junk) have you already bought?  This week’s FTOTW returns with just that question!

Let us know… In the forums!

This week’s triumphant return of #freestufffriday has us dishing out a couple uber-cool Prototype art books.  The books, a pre-order bonus, include 36 pages of cool images, character designs, and concept art to ogle over.

How to win?  Simple.

1) Leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite open-world game of 2009, or

2) Follow us on Twitter and retweet this message: RT I want this #FreeStuffFriday Prototype book from @SideQuesting! http://bit.ly/T8Ujz

3) Enter up to once per day Friday, Saturday, Sunday via comment or Twitter or both

4) Must be a US, Canadian, Australian or UK resident to enter

5) Check back on Sunday Oct 11, 10PM EST (when we draw the winner) at the bottom of this post to see who wins.

6) We’re giving away TWO books, one on Twitter and one in the comments… that means you have two chances to win!

Good Luck!